


Meeting the Family

by bell (bellaboo), bellaboo, usomitai (bellaboo)



Category: Persona 2
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-10-22
Updated: 2002-10-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 02:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellaboo/pseuds/bell, https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellaboo/pseuds/bellaboo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellaboo/pseuds/usomitai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn’t so much that Maya Amano thought that the young man would dislike or disprove of her– she had evidence to think otherwise, actually– it was just that if she ever met him, there was the danger of reality, as they knew it, tearing apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting the Family

There were a number of problems involved in trying to date Katsuya Suoh, the least of which was his younger brother. It wasn’t so much that Maya Amano thought that the young man would dislike or disprove of her– she had evidence to think otherwise, actually– it was just that if she ever met him, there was the danger of reality, as they knew it, tearing apart.

Upon first realizing this, Katsuya all but banged his head against the wall. As it were, he burried his face in hands for a good silent five minutes before running off to the kitchen. Maya followed him there, more curious to watch Katsuya’s bizzare behavior than concerned. While he rambled at great length about the problem and the possible solutions Katsuya pulled together the ingredients for a recipe– eggs, butter, bowls, nutmeg, (when Maya interrupted him to ask why he forgot the cream, Katsuya explained that if you took the cream out of the fridge too early it wasn’t as fluffy), measuring cups, and more. Maya tried to guess what he was going to bake this time, but trying to imagine the end cullinary result just by looking at the ingridients almost, but not quite, made her head ache. Cooking had never been her forte.

”That’s just like him, you know,” Katsuya began on a rare bit of snippery targetting on Tatsuya– lecture at him he did everyday, but never insult– ”He only takes interest in something when you least want him to. I think he does it on purpose, just to drive me insane.” And on he went, fretting and complaining in turn, as he separated the egg from the yolk, stirred the batter (letting Maya taste a small sample only– Katsuya didn’t like people eating anything but the final product), and carefuly poured the batter into a tray. By the time he had put the cake into the oven (one of the few luxiries he allowed himself– ovens were a rarity in Japanese kitchens, but Katsuya had been unable to live without them since the time he was fifteen and bought his first one with the money he earned at his   
part time job at the AM PM convinience store. The small amounts of money, that is, that didn’t go straight to his mom to help keep the family finances afloat), he had ranted himself out.

It was only while he was wipping the counter clean of the random messes baking cakes will ineviatably create that he asked her, ”What do you think?”

Maya tried to help out by washing the utensils that were dirty with the cake creating process. She wasn’t sure if she was making more of a mess than she was cleaning one up. ”I’m not really all that worried. I mean, Tatsuya-kun is dating that Kashihara boy, right? And that hasn’t prompted any memory outbursts, has it? Things have been going peacefully.”

Katsuya grimaced slightly. He still thought Lisa would have been a better romantic partner for Tatsuya (”The police force, much less society, does not take homosexuality lightly”). But Tatsuya had been adamant, saying that Lisa was a royal pain in the neck (”I’m sure she’s very nice, but it’s creepy how she keeps staring at me. Plus, the whole idol thing? Nah.”) and that he wasn’t going to give up Jun for anything short of the apocalypse. And maybe not even then (Katsuya’s response, to quote him, was ”......”). ”I just don’t want to push our luck. Fortunately we managed to keep Silverman’s and Mishina’s memories locked, but every little bit makes it worse.”

”I don’t have to meet him, you know. I want to, but there’s no need. Not if it makes things worse.”

”It’s not as if I could keep you hidden forever, Amano-san. I told you already, Tatsuya’s getting suspicious, and I wouldn’t be surprised if wants to practice being a detective on this little mystery.”

”Well, you’re a full-blown detective, and he’s still working at being one! I’m sure you can hide things for however long is necessary.”

”However long is necess–” Katsuya did not finish the question.

That was the other problem with dating Katsuya Suoh. He wanted immediate security. And Maya wasn’t sure she could give it to him. It’s not that she didn’t like the man– everyday she was more convinced than ever that she loved him– but she knew herself better than that. She knew how much wonder the world held, and she knew how easily her attention could drift elsewhere. It wasn’t that Maya thought she’d leave Katsuya for someone else, but that her fancy would be caught by a new hobby or interest. There was too much fun in this world that Maya could and did not want to guarantee eternal devotion to anyone yet. She wanted to know and explore more.

Katsuya had listened to this explanation calmly, and when he gave his answer he pushed his glasses back up. ”The fact is, Amano-san, I’m enamored with you. If you’re willing to put up with me even for just a slight while, I’ll take what I can.”

How could she resist someone so sweet? (Even if she suspected he was taking small baby steps to convince her to marry him sooner or later– sooner preferably). They had started a relationship, awkward here (when she first called him ”Katsuya” she could have sworn he was going to die from a blood implosion to his head. She kept calling him by his first name, and got him to promise to do the same, but more often than not he avoided saying ”Maya” or ”you”), annoying there (Maya was almost, but not quite, too oblivious for Katsuya’s tastes), with the frequent dash of wonderful (he could be so understanding!). Where it was going, neither of them really knew.

Maya looked at the cat-ear sporting clock. ”Oh my god, I’m late for the interview! Katsuya, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get going.” She eyed the cake, still baking itself in the oven, wistfully.

”Already? But you just got here...”

”It can’t be helped,” Maya said with a smile. ”Senor Brown is too busy to meet with anybody except at this hour. As it were, I had to have Eriko-san pull in a favor or two to get me this interview.”

Katsuya remembered Brown-san– cock eyed, a grin too wide for his own good, and an self-centered sense of humor. He wondered if maybe his girlfriend had to deal with worse people than he did at the police force. ”Take care.”

”No worries! I’ll seduce him and get all the interviews I want,” she teased. Maya supposed it was a bit perverse of her to threaten Katsuya, but when she made that kind of joke he got that cute little grin that said, ’yeah, right.’ He had low self-esteem about so many things, but not about Maya cheating on him. Maya liked doing it because, in a strange way, it reminded him of the things he could be happy about. ”’Sides, his kind is nothing new to me. I’ve got plenty of experience dealing with exaggerated egos.”

”Well, I have faith in your skills. See you later tonight?”

”At the French restaunt, right? Meet you there!” They took care of their goodbye (which took more than   
one kiss and five minutes), Katsuya promised to bring whatever what was left of the cake (Maya was willing to bet that it would be most of it, but she didn’t say so), and Maya left Katsuya to take care of the final baking preparations and went on her merry way.

It was when she closed the door to the apartment that she ran into Tatsuya.

”Oooof,” they said, and rebounded a few steps. It took Maya a few seconds– first she had to acknowledge that the face did indeed match that of Deja-Vu Boy’s, that he was wearing his seven’s uniform (guess he finally went back to school– thank god), and, that, geez, this wasn’t supposed to happen!– to run over to the window and look anxiously outside.

”Well, at last w–” Tatsuya began, but he stopped when he realized that Maya was too preoccupied with craning her neck around the window to realize that he was talking. ”Um...” He could swear she was talking about something along the lines of dragons, polar shifts, and earthquakes. If she was going to go off-kilter, he thought, she might as well mention aliens, too.

After she got her fill of looking at the outside world (Tatsuya didn’t think she had gone for breath air– he had taken a bath that morning, so he couldn’t smell that bad. No worse than his brother, anyway), she took a couple of quick steps towards Tatsuya, stopped, reconsidered herself, and walked quickly toward the stairs.

She was bizzare. Absolutely bewildreing. But he wasn’t going to let her get away so easily. ”Maya Amano!”

She stopped in her tracks. The truth always had that effect. Slowly, a bit apprehensively, she turned towards him. ”H, how did you know? You didn’t–”

”I did,” Tatsuya confessed, ”And it wasn’t all that hard.”

Maya considered this for a second. What was she worrying about? Nothing was blowing up, which had been   
her main and only concern. ”Well, I guess since the world hasn’t fallen apart, I guess it’s all for the best! I was tired of sneaking around, anyway.” Although there was the matter of dredging painful memories, Tatsuya didn’t seem to be haunted by the ghosts of his sins. Maybe he finally felt as though he’d served his punishment. ”How did it happen?”

Tatsuya grinned, apparently proud of himself. ”Oniichan isn’t all that subtle, y’know. I could tell at once he had a girl. And he’s really lax at home, leaves his wallet lying around. He’s got a real cute picture of you in there, I guess it’s from work ’cause you have a microphone with you.”

The implications that Tatsuya knew who she was were slowing sinking in: not only did she not have to hide anymore, but she got back one of her best friends! This was great! ”Yukki took that photo. Funny, isn’t it? She’s usually so adamant about taking only landscapes, but she’s great at people pictures. I think she’s just being shy about her talent.”

While Tatsuya had the build to be an athlete if he wanted to, he did not fancy the idea of spending hours pumping his muscles. Yet now he blinked at Maya as though he were nothing more than a big, dumb jock. ”Yukki?”

”C’mon, you know, Yukki! Curly black hair, yellow bandanna, has a mean punch–”

To continue with the dumb jock theme, Tatsuya scrunched his face as though being asked to in what year the Sekigahara battle had taken place. It was then that Maya realized that Tatsuya didn’t remember her at all, much less the other members of the team, and that she had to unscrunch his features before he unlocked any memories.

”You knew my name just from photo?”

That distracted him. Tatsuya was obviously proud of his research. ”Nah. I heard oniichan talking to you on the phone– I guess he thought I was sleeping or something– so it didn’t take long to figure out that your name is Maya Amano and that you work for the Crescent magazine.

Oh, Katsuya-san, thought Maya. You’re so talented at finding out secrets, but you’re easier to read than the latest John Grisham novel.

Well, things were still in her favor. Tatsuya had met her and the world was still in one piece.

Except that she was already late.

”Ohmygodlookatthetime! It’s been nice meeting you, Tatsuya-kun, ta-taa! Hope you enjoy your brother’s   
cake!”

It was too much fun to laugh off his frantic questions as she ran down the stairs.


End file.
